We've all had mouth-watering moments watching Masterchef and winced at various times watching Pop Idol.

We've all had mouth-watering moments watching Masterchef and winced at various times watching Pop Idol.

Put the two television programme formats together with interactive TV and onscreen tests and what have you got? The recipe for producing a celebrity chef!

At least that is the hope of Hartlepool Council as it bids to put the town on the national, and even international, stage.

And the prize?

Five years in Hartlepool!

But that is not a sentence, as it could have understandably been perceived more than a decade ago.

It is the chance to launch a new, fully-fitted restaurant and bistro - rent free for up to five years - and hopefully do for Hartlepool what TV chef Rick Stein did for Padstow by opening a fish restaurant there about 20 years ago.

Today the Cornish village is thriving, the restaurant having put it on the tourist map and been the catalyst for new ventures such as a cookery school, hotels, an abundance of B&Bs and six Good Food Guide-listed restaurants.

The Teesside grand plan is to have a fish restaurant, bistro and small shopping complex related to the town's fishing industry, plus a building suitable for a variety of uses such as an exhibition gallery, on a two-acre site next to Kafiga Landings, beside the old Headland Fish Quay.

It could also be seen as the missing piece of the jigsaw begun by the former Teesside Development Corporation more than ten years ago with the development of the Historic Quay and Marina.

There was also the work of City Challenge, whose brief was to regenerate the town centre.

"It was awful," says Tim White. "There were derelict buildings everywhere and it was a depressing place to be."

But when the City Challenge team moved out in 1998 the area had been transformed beyond recognition.

"The Hartlepool City Challenge was one of the most successful in the country," says Tim. "It built on the solid platform created by Teesside Development Corporation. The almost derelict Church Street is now a thriving night spot area."

Tim was assistant City Challenge manager. Today he is the council's director of regeneration and planning.

He is the man behind the £1.6m plan, an idea he formed in 1998 after a visit to Padstow.

He says: "It could be a starting point for the Headland, which has tremendous potential. But, unlike Padstow, we haven't got 20 years to wait.

"The town has a small fishing fleet and when the council invested about £600,000 a few years ago to replace the old fish quay I thought it a shame we could not utilise it more."

"Like Padstow we are also beside the sea and land fish at the town and I wondered if it would be possible to create the Rick Stein effect in Hartlepool.

"The idea lay dormant because I couldn't see whether it was achieveble or done without damaging the growing restaurant trade in the town."

Then the Government made money available through Department of Environment, Fisheries and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) under one of the fisheries initiative to assist areas where there were problems with the rundown of the fishing fleet.

The council joined a study by Redcar and Cleveland Council into fishing velvet crab - highly prized on the Continent but not regarded here as a money-making catch.

Further research funding was ruled out but, surprisingly, DEFRA did agree to fund the restaurant complex feasibility study to the tune of £50,000. London-based Hewden Consultants were appointed and in a report last November said the idea was feasible, but not without risk.

Tim says: "Most innovative regeneration projects contain an element of risk but Hewden did suggest rather than just creating an award winning fish restaurant why not a gastro-village - a series of businesses around the restaurant which would complement that.

"These would include wine merchants, smoke house, delicatessen, cookery utensils - a synergy not usual in one complex. By creating a magnet for trade during the day this would also create an evening trade - essential to viablity.

"They also said it was all very well creating an award-winning restaurant but wondered how we were going to attract an award-winning chef to Hartlepool. They came up with the Masterchef/Pop Idol idea.

"It would create massive publicity for both the town and the restaurant - look what it did for Jamie Oliver's 15 Restaurant, it's now booked months ahead.

"There are no guarantees but Hewden are talking to a number of producers who are keen on the project."

Apartments above the restaurant and shops would take more advantage of the waterfront location and Tim believes the project has to be of the highest standard, using the term industrial chic.

"There are no buildings there yet so what we want is for the complex to look as though it has been there many years, like an old dockside warehouse converted to new uses, with lots of dark stained timber, lots of glass, high quality finishes, stylish.

"In other words, something that will respect the historic architecture of the Headland."